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This study, adopting the Foucauldian lenses of citizenship, investigates how a group of students understand the prevailing social discourses and how such understanding and perceptions influence students' sense of citizenship and coping strategies. Drawing on in-depth individual interviews with 28 participants from six universities in Hong Kong, the findings suggest that multiple factors have impacts on the university students' sense of citizenship, including the media as technologies to shape citizenship, the essentialized ideological differences as an apparatus of intervention to shape and act upon individuals, and the legitimacy and discordance of opinions among individuals within both physical and virtual communities. The participants were found to gradually develop an awareness of the discursive construction of the social. They were found to search for their sense of citizenship through (a) opting for one ideological stance and/or keeping silent to avoid being othered within the social discourses existing at the social, community, and family levels; (b) adopting different coping strategies when dealing with their confusion towards conflicting comments; or (c) developing news reading literacy and coming to the realization of the role media plays in discursively constructing new citizens and exercising influence over existing and potential members of communities. The implications of the findings for curriculum design and policy making to develop support measures to facilitate students' positive learning and whole-person development are discussed.

C20H18ClF4N3O, orthorhombic, Pbca (no. 61), a = 12.5254(4) Å, b = 12.6845(5) Å, c = 24.1490(11) Å, V = 3836.8(3) Å3, Z = 8, Rgt(F) = 0.0485, wRref(F2) = 0.1343, T = 293 K.

As an essential component of future comprehensive Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) system, indoor positioning technology has extensive application demands, making it a focal point of attention in both academia and industry. This article comprehensively reviews the research status of indoor positioning technology in China, with a focus on highlighting representative achievements and application validations from major research institutions in recent years. It addresses the challenges and issues faced in promotion and application of large-scale, high-precision indoor positioning. Furthermore, a universal and seamless indoor-outdoor positioning system architecture is proposed, along with a technical roadmap and key technologies to achieve this architecture. Finally, an analysis and outlook on future technological trends are presented.

Objective: To investigate the effect and possible mechanism of Rosa roxburghii fruit polyphenols (RRP) on hypertension induced by NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) in mice. Methods: RRP with a purity of 68% was prepared in the laboratory. L-NAME was used to induce a mouse model of hypertension, and the mice were divided into four groups: model, positive control (captopril), low-dose RRP, and high-dose RRP. All mice were killed and dissected for measurement of organ indexes. Mice not treated with L-NAME served as a control group. The serum was collected to determine the levels of nitric oxide (NO), endothelin-1 (ET-1), renin, angiotensin II (Ang II), aldosterone (ALD), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). The levels of oxidative stress markers including malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were assayed in kidney and liver tissues, and heart and kidney tissues were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) for pathological observation. Results: Compared with the blank group, the model group showed a significant increase in blood pressure; serum NO concentration significantly decreased (P < 0.05), serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels significantly increased (P < 0.05), and serum ET-1, renin, Ang II, and ALD levels significantly increased (P < 0.05). MDA levels in kidney and liver tissues significantly increased (P < 0.05), and SOD and GSH-Px activities significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Compared with the model group, blood pressure significantly increased in the positive control group and the low- and high-dose RRP groups (P < 0.05). Serum NO levels significantly increased (P < 0.05), and serum IL-6, TNF-α, ET-1, renin, Ang II, and ALD levels significantly decreased (P < 0.05). MDA levels in kidney and liver tissues significantly declined (P < 0.05), and GSH-Px activity significantly increased (P < 0.05). Conclusion: RRP has an obvious hypotensive effect, possibly by increasing NO bioavailability, improving endothelial cell dysfunction, inhibiting the over-activation of the renin angiotensin aldosterone system, and reducing inflammation and oxidative stress.

Abstract Mode-pairing quantum key distribution (MP-QKD) is a potential protocol that is not only immune to all possible detector side channel attacks, but also breaks the repeaterless rate-transmittance bound without needing global phase locking. Here we analyze the finite-key effect for the MP-QKD protocol with rigorous security proof against general attacks. Moreover, we propose a six-state MP-QKD protocol and analyze its finite-key effect. The results show that the original protocol can break the repeaterless rate-transmittance bound with a typical finite number of pulses in practice. And our six-state protocol can improve the secret key rate significantly in long distance cases.

Abstract Background Breast fibroadenoma is the most common benign breast tumour. This study aimed to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of endoscopic-assisted resection via a gas-less transaxillary single-port approach for breast fibroadenoma in adolescent patients, compared with a traditional approach. Methods The clinical data of 83 patients with breast fibroadenoma treated in our hospital from October 2019 to October 2021 were collected for retrospective analysis. These patients were divided into an endoscopic-assisted surgery (ES) group (n = 39) and a traditional open surgery (OS) group (n = 44) according to the surgical approach. The operative time, intraoperative blood loss, incision length, postoperative complications, and patient satisfaction were compared between the two groups. Results The surgical cost was (5.1 ± 0.6) thousand Yuan [(0.7 ± 0.1) thousand US dollars] in the ES group and (3.5 ± 2.7) thousand Yuan [(0.5 ± 0.4) thousand US dollars] in the OS group, showing a statistically significant difference (p

Abstract The success of deep learning in the field of state‐of‐health (SOH) estimation relies on a large amount of battery data and the fact that all data possess the same probability distribution. While in real situations, a model based on one working condition data set may not be valid for another working condition data set due to distribution differences. Therefore, this article proposes a transfer learning method using soft‐dynamic time warping (soft‐DTW) as the statistical feature in the feature transfer method, called soft‐DTW domain adaptation network (SDDAN). By combining the prediction error with the time‐series gap in the model training process, the feature transformation can make the obtained prediction results more similar to the source domain results, which can help us to obtain better prediction results in the target domain. Experimental results show that SDDAN can effectively predict the SOH of Li‐ion batteries and significantly improve the performance of feature learning and knowledge transfer.

[Introduction] The rapid development of VSC-HVDC provides practical support for MMC (Modular Multi-Level Converter) topology. Takes a half bridge MMC converter as an example, the relationship between steady-state capacitor voltage fluctuation, harmonic interaction, and bridge arm switching function of MMC is studied in order to provide theoretical support for MMC system design and control strategy. [Method] By establishing analytical expressions for the sub module capacitor voltage and bridge arm switch function, the mathematical approximate expressions for the energy fluctuation and capacitor voltage fluctuation of the upper and lower bridge arms of the MMC converter were obtained. Furthermore, the distribution law of harmonics in the upper and lower bridge arms current, AC (Alternating Current ) valve side, and DC (Direct Current) side, as well as the positive and negative sequence relationship of inter phase circulation were studied. Based on the harmonic formula, an estimation method for the secondary circulation was obtained; Furthermore, the variable comparison method was used to study the relationship between the switching function of the bridge arm and the voltage of the submodule capacitance with the valve side power factor and the size of the submodule capacitance. Finally, a detailed PSCAD/EMTDC model was built based on actual engineering parameters, and a consistency comparison between theoretical analysis and offline simulation was conducted. [Result] The research has shown that the inter phase circulating current of MMC only contains even harmonics, with 6k+2 circulating currents exhibiting negative sequence, 6k+4 circulating currents exhibiting positive sequence, and 6k circulating currents exhibiting zero sequence characteristics. At the same time, under steady-state conditions, the AC voltage and current flow at the outlet of MMC valve side only contains odd harmonics, while the DC voltage and current flow at MMC DC side only contains even harmonics, and at the power factor angle φ

Abstract Background The presence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has been demonstrated to pose an increased risk for developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, the causal relationships between T1DM and CVDs remain unclear due to the uncontrolled confounding factors and reverse causation bias of the observational studies. Methods Summary statistics of T1DM and seven CVDs from the largest available genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of European ancestry and FinnGen biobank were extracted for the primary MR analysis, and the analysis was replicated using UK biobank (UKBB) for validation. Three complementary methods: inverse variance weighted (IVW), weighted median, and MR-Egger were used for the MR estimates. The potential pleiotropic effects were assessed by MR-Egger intercept and MR-PRESSO global test. Additionally, multivariable MR (MVMR) analysis was performed to examine whether T1DM has independent effects on CVDs with adjustment of potential confounding factors. Moreover, a two-step MR approach was used to assess the potential mediating effects of these factors on the causal effects between T1DM and CVDs. Results Causal effects of T1DM on peripheral atherosclerosis (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02–1.10; p = 0.002)] and coronary atherosclerosis (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01–1.05; p = 0.001) were found. The results were less likely to be biased by the horizontal pleiotropic effects (both p values of MR-Egger intercept and MR-PRESSO Global test > 0.05). In the following MVMR analysis, we found the causal effects of T1DM on peripheral atherosclerosis and coronary atherosclerosis remain significant after adjusting for a series of potential confounding factors. Moreover, we found that hypertension partly mediated the causal effects of T1DM on peripheral atherosclerosis (proportion of mediation effect in total effect: 11.47%, 95% CI: 3.23–19.71%) and coronary atherosclerosis (16.84%, 95% CI: 5.35–28.33%). We didn’t find significant causal relationships between T1DM and other CVDs, including heart failure (HF), coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation (AF), myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. For the reverse MR from CVD to T1DM, no significant causal relationships were identified. Conclusion This MR study provided evidence supporting the causal effect of T1DM on peripheral atherosclerosis and coronary atherosclerosis, with hypertension partly mediating this effect.

Owing to the feature of strong α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, 1-deoxynojirimycin (1-DNJ) has broad application prospects in areas of functional food, biomedicine, etc., and this research wants to construct an efficient strain for 1-DNJ production, basing on Bacillus amyloliquefaciens HZ-12. Firstly, using the temperature-sensitive shuttle plasmid T2 (2)-Ori, gene ptsG in phosphotransferase system (PTS) was weakened by homologous recombination, and non-PTS pathway was strengthened by deleting its repressor gene iolR, and 1-DNJ yield of resultant strain HZ-S2 was increased by 4.27-fold, reached 110.72 mg/L. Then, to increase precursor fructose-6-phosphate (F-6-P) supply, phosphofructokinase was weaken, fructose phosphatase GlpX and 6-phosphate glucose isomerase Pgi were strengthened by promoter replacement, moreover, regulator gene nanR was deleted, 1-DNJ yield was further increased to 267.37 mg/L by 2.41-fold. Subsequently, promoter of 1-DNJ synthetase cluster was optimized, as well as 5′-UTRs of downstream genes in synthetase cluster, and 1-DNJ produced by the final strain reached 478.62 mg/L. Last but not the least, 1-DNJ yield of 1632.50 mg/L was attained in 3 L fermenter, which was the highest yield of 1-DNJ reported to date. Taken together, our results demonstrated that metabolic engineering was an effective strategy for 1-DNJ synthesis, this research laid a foundation for industrialization of functional food and drugs based on 1-DNJ.

The “Power System Economics: Design and Analysis” for students majoring in electrical engineering is a graduate course to teach the basic concepts. The analysis methods and basic concepts of economic problems involved in electric power are of great significance to help students understand the content of economics of electric power system. This paper reforms and redesigns the teaching methods and teaching forms through the combination of curriculum theory and programming practice to improve the innovation and creativity of students. The students could share and show their achievement through their own designs, such as self-designed small games and WeChat small procedures, and the value of this course is greatly enhanced compared to the traditional course.

The composition of antifungal volatile compounds (VC) produced by Bacillus subtilis PW2 was identified by solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Then, the identified single components were selected to determine their inhibitory effect against Aspergillus ochraceus by plate buckling method, and the effect and mechanism of the most active VC on the growth and toxicity of A. ochraceu. The results showed that 41 components including esters, aldehydes, alkanes, alcohols, ketones, acids and olefins were identified in the VC produced by PW2. Among these compounds, 2-ethyl hexanol (2-EH) had the strongest inhibitory activity against A. ochraceus. Direct contact with 2-EH at a dose of 1 562.5 μL/L completely inhibited the growth of A. ochraceus and reduced the content of ochratoxin A (OTA) by 23.67%. 2-EH vapor at doses of 112 and 281 μL/L completely inhibited and killed A. ochraceus, respectively. The spores of A. ochraceus treated with 2-EH appeared wrinkled, sunken and shriveled, and the integrity of the cell membrane was destroyed. Furthermore, the mycelial ergosterol content decreased by 42.68%–65.40%, and nucleic acid and protein leaked out of the cells after this treatment. This study shows that 2-EH can inhibit and kill A. ochraceus by destroying its cell membrane, which provides a theoretical basis for the application of 2-EH in the prevention of food mildew.

Objective: To investigate the differences between meditation and resting states using infrared thermal imaging (IRTI) to determine facial temperature distribution features during meditation and annotate the patterns of facial temperature changes during meditation from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine facial diagnosis. Methods: Each participant performed 10 min meditation and 10 min resting but in different sequences. A concentration test was set as the task load, followed by a meditation/resting or resting/meditation session, during which the participants' facial temperatures were observed using IRTI. Participants were scored on the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Results: Forehead temperatures decreased more during meditation than during the resting state. The chin temperature increased only during meditation (P

The unripe palmleaf raspberry, namely Fupenzi (FPZ), is an important medicinal and edible food. This study aims to evaluate the potential of FPZ extracts prepared with different approaches in attenuating hyperglycemia, gout, Alzheimer's disease, and pigmentation, to obtain the enriching fraction and to identify the major active compounds. Results indicated that FPZ extracts showed weak activity against acetylcholinesterase, considerable ability against tyrosinase and xanthine oxidase, but excellent inhibition on α-glucosidase. Ultrasound-assisted 40 % ethanol extract (40EUS) gave the highest phenolics content, and the best α-glucosidase inhibition (IC50 = 0.08 μg/mL), which is 877-fold higher than that of positive control acarbose. The 40 % ethanol eluting fraction of 40EUS showed the strongest a-glucosidase inhibition with the IC50 value of 37.79 ng/mL, it could also effectively attenuate the fasting blood glucose level and oral glucose tolerance of C57BL/6 mice. Twenty-six compounds were identified from 40 % ethanol fraction by using HPLC-QTOF-MS/MS, hydrolysable tannins (including 11 ellagitannins and 4 gallotannins) were the major compounds, phenolic acids came to the second. Above results could provide important technical supporting for the further application and research of FPZ in health foods and drugs against diabetes.